Dad's Still Watching Over Us

My father passed away very unexpectedly back in September of 1983. Around
the time he died, members of my family experienced a series of strange
occurrences prior to and after his death. I am the youngest of four, and
have one older brother and two older sisters. At the time of my father's
death, both of my sisters were married and on their own. My brother and I
lived at home with our parents in Randolph, Massachusetts.

One week before my father's death, my parents were away for the weekend
staying at a house we had recently purchased. We were doing some cosmetic
work to the house before it was to be rented to a tenant, so there was no
phone installed.

My brother and I were at home, and he was suddenly overcome by a feeling
that something happened to one or both of our parents. My brother insisted
that we take a ride to the new house (about an hour away) to make sure our
parents were okay. We arrived there and our parent's car was parked safely
in the driveway, and this calmed my brother's fears. We did not bother my
parents and returned home to Randolph.

That same night after we got home, my brother went out to a local
convenience store. When he returned, he came into the house in a panicky
state claiming he saw a :white glowing column" on the roof standing near the
chimney. I went outside and did not see anything (there was no smoke coming
from the chimney as it was a very warm September night).

My father passed away the following Sunday. We were all obviously very upset
by his death. Plans were made for his wake and funeral and several more
strange things happened during this time. In retrospect, I believe that my
father was communicating to us, his children, in ways that we would each
understand.

It was the day after my father died. I was a teenager at the time and my
then-boyfriend and I were sitting in his car in the Blue Hills Reservation
(Milton). The car was facing the woods, and suddenly a white glowing ball
appeared in the woods in front of the car and was flitting around. We both
saw this and were very frightened! We left immediately and he dropped me off
at home. (As a child, my father used to take me "ghost watching" in the Blue
Hills, which is reputedly home to many ghosts. We never saw anything on
these excursions, but I always liked stopping at Dairy Queen for an ice
cream on the way home!)

I was upset when I got home. I spent a few minutes talking with my mother
and older sister, who had returned home from California for the funeral. I
did not mention my experience in the Blue Hills Reservation. I went to use
the bathroom, and pulled down the window shade. About a minute after I
pulled down the window shade, it violently retracted and snapped back up so
that the window was fully exposed (this had never happened before). That was
just about as much as I could take in one night! I was very upset, but
managed to go to bed.

The next night was the night before the wake. My sister from California was
in the bathroom across from my bedroom drying her hair. She called my name
and I came out into the hallway. She asked me if I could hear what she was
hearing. We could both hear a very distinctive bird call coming from outside
(the windows were all open). The bird call sounded like one you would hear
in a tropical climate, and was very loud. Also, it was night time and you do
not usually hear birds at night. I had never heard such a bird call before.
(My sister later told me that when she was a little girl, she would set up a
tent and "camp" in the backyard with friends. My father liked to joke
around, and would sneak up to the tent and make strange animal noises,
including one like the bird call we heard that night.)

The next night was the night before the funeral and burial. We had a full
house as all of us, including my two older sisters and their husbands, were
staying over. My other older sister who lives locally slept in a bedroom
that my father also used as his "studio" (he liked to paint and draw and was
quite good). She woke in the middle of the night to hear a lilting voice
saying over and over "Lisa" (her name). Her husband heard the voice as well.
Lisa later told me that when she was little that our father would hide a
"walkie-talkie" two-way radio and call her name. She would be looking for
our father because she could hear his voice on the two-way, but could not
find him -- Dad though this was amusing.

About a week or two after the funeral, a cat showed up at our backdoor and
my mother let her in thinking she was our cat. It was actually a cat that
looked almost identical to our cat "Popcorn," but she had double paws, which
was how we realized she was not Popcorn. I named the new cat "Max," and she
showed up at our house every night for about two weeks and slept on my bed.
I found Max to be a big comfort, and sometimes had both Popcorn and Max with
me (Popcorn was very accepting of Max). One night Max did not show up and I
never saw her again.

Also, I think my father is still watching out for me. In the few years after
his death I think he was "weeding out" the good boyfriends from the bad. We
had an extra bedroom we always referred to as the "yellow room." I dated two
long-term boyfriends before I met and married my husband. On occasion, the
boyfriend would stay over (only with my mother's permission and always in a
separate room). Both boyfriends woke up screaming that there was a white orb
bouncing around the bedroom, and were very frightened (kind of like what I
saw in the Blue Hills Reservation)! I eventually met the man I would marry,
and he slept in the "yellow room" many times without seeing anything. In a
way, I took this as my father's blessing and have been married for 16 years
and have a wonderful husband and two great children.

I have not lived in Randolph for many years and now reside in Boston. A
couple of times on the anniversary of my father's death, I have heard that
same strange bird call outside of my house (always after dark and usually on
very warm September nights). I think he is still out there watching over his
children.